This was not the worst decision Daemon had ever made in his life, but it certainly wasn't the best. He stood in the strange forest, looking at the river below and the trees surrounding, and he wondered if his sister was trying to kill him. If she was trying to kill him, Luci should have just tricked him into grafting poison to his body. It would have been more effective and faster, certainly. 

He was sent to murder a woman named Europa. Luci apparently couldn't, and she was offering a handsome reward in advance, and also she hounded Daemon for over a year until he accepted.

He had the very basest of Europa's appearance in the form of Luci's hateful muttering of the description; skinny, fuzzy, dark, bug-eyed and housecat. So he knew he was looking for a thin cat-like werekin or beastfolk with black or dark brown fur, probably with pronounced eyes. 

This was not helpful, exactly, though he had known only a few black-furred beastkin. That might help.

He needed to know where he was. 

A forest. On the edge of running water, likely the closest she could get him with the teleport. 

He was not dissuaded from this idea when he sniffed the air and discovered a powerful scent of at least three kinds of magic. One matched his own, the others were faerie and what he guessed was spirit magic. Planetary was similar.

And the one like his was getting stronger.

Daemon waited for the sources to appear, anxious for the first few seconds, curious for the next few, annoyed for ten more, and then after nearly twenty seconds of smelling this magic source move around the forest, getting stronger and more overwhelming, he got scared again. The hells could hold that much magic? How many were there? Were they going to eat him? Was it Europa?

The presence got closer and Daemon was more and more convinced that this power rivaled his own, and then he had to admit that they were stronger than him. Luci would have mentioned power like this, right? Or would that be why she sent him? 

It might not even be Europa. 

He hoped not, because he finally spotted the source. The purple ribbon in the brown curls betrayed the little girl as she peeked around some brush to look at him with wide mismatched eyes. She darted back into hiding when she noticed him looking. It took a few more seconds before the brown curls once again began to edge around the gray sticks. 

He waited to see if she was alone, convinced another person was contributing to the smell. It was hard to believe that the strongest magician he ever encountered was twenty feet away and only just breaking through.

The child apparently noticed that he was staring back at her, because she slowly crept out of her hiding place. The knee length purple dress was home made, but the puffed up sleeves looked professionally done. The soft leather shoes were unfamiliar but looked comfortable. She stepped slowly into the center of a dirt path that magically appeared at her feet, bursting with pink flowers at her heels. 

She was adorable. Warm brown skin, round features, freckles, brown curls in braids that reminded Daemon of the east coast. Everything that came to mind when someone said "cute little human girl" was blinking at him with an eye containing the infinite cosmos, reeking of enough magical power to rip the planet asunder. His soul felt upside-down, and the world felt like it was going to crumble around him, leaving him to tumble into starry nothingness.

Daemon wondered if the presence alone was going to knock him down. How could she stand herself? She was going to explode just being there like this, she was a living instability.

"Hello!" the instability chirped in a perfectly human singsong filled with genuine cheer. She didn't seem even a little scared of him, which was an amusing irony that Daemon couldn't appreciate in the face of this immensity. 

"I'm Brina!" she continued when he didn't answer. He forgot he was supposed to. "What's your name?"

What was his name? It was lost in her eye, and he had to fish it back out and drag himself to the mundane, simple, normal world (actually, faerie forest, let's not forget) that held him and this child, who wanted to know his name.

"Daemon," he found his mouth saying. 

She bounced merrily and clasped her hands behind her back. "I like your horns!" With or without the irony of his being afraid of her when she wasn't afraid of him, that was just plain odd to hear. "I like their fire, it's all shiny and crawly, it looks like when it's stretching and blue."

Daemon had a few responses, but none of them would have been helpful at all. She said her name was Brina, which meant she wasn't his target, but it could be fake. 

"Did you fall in?" Brina asked, looking at the river. "Can you make yourself dry with the fire?"

He blinked at her again and looked to the river for a moment, not seeing anything that would indicate his getting into or out of it. "What?"

"Ro-Ro's forest spits out visitors," the little girl explained, gesturing over her shoulder. "It likes me and Daddy and Aunt Eupa and Ro-Ro and that's it. We can show you, but if you're here alone– wait, can your magic get past that?"

She didn't seem distressed at the prospect of the forest's warding not working, so Daemon concluded that the child, magic or not, only had some knowledge surrounding the subject. Also, she was in contact with his target– Ro-Ro or Eupa both had the potential for being a nickname for Europa. They might even be two halves of the same person.

Except that would involve murdering the family of a little girl that was being sweet to him, and he didn't want to do that.

Daemon couldn't remember what he'd been asked anymore.

"Are you okay?" she asked. She stepped closer to him and lifted a hand, but even she didn't seem to know what she intended. 

He didn't want to tell the child that she was a threat to herself and others, but someone had to know. She clearly didn't. Did her family?

"I'm okay," Daemon finally lied, and he tried to think of how to get out of this. He didn't want to do this anymore. He wanted to go home, Luci be damned, and he didn't even know what direction home was from here. "What river is this?"

"The Tuthai Mot!" the little girl cheered happily. "It goes through Tinian, which is that way," she said, pointing west, upriver. "If you follow it up, you'll get to the town walls and sometimes they let people in at the sluice but you'll probably need to follow the wall around to the road."

She paused and then a mischievous smile twitched upon the little mouth. "Or I can take you," she said, but the mischief fell away and she bounced again, apparently a habit when she was cheerful. "What kind of magic do you have?"

Oh, right. She mentioned seeing his fire. He wondered passively if it was both eyes or just the one that could see it. "It's complicated, but we share one kind, and the other is hellfire," he summed up as carefully as he could. 

She practically glowed to hear him say that they shared the one kind. If she even heard the part about hellfire, she certainly didn't care much, or perhaps didn't know what it was. "The same number of kinds?" she asked. "'Cos I've got a bunch, my ones today isn't all."

Daemon figured. He didn't know, but no one with that much was going to have it dedicated to a single force type without causing actual physical disturbances around their person. The girl was already causing metaphysical disturbances around her person, and that was with dilution. 

His mouth kept going for him. "I have the same kinds. Maybe even a couple you don't."

The child smiled again, but the mischief was "ha, the adult is wrong". He had a lot, but he worked hard for his– she may or may not have access, but she certainly didn't have the ability he had to use them. 

"Is that why your arms look like that?" she asked, pointing.

He blinked down at the fresh grafts, shining black skin replacing his own from the shoulders down, and then blinked back at the child. "Do you recognize it?"

She shook her head. "I can see the magic," she clarified. "It's like your horns but better, kinda crawlier with more color and more… um…" She paused and used her hands to indicate undulation. He smiled absently, taken aback by how cute that was, and her face pinkened. "It's really pretty, I really like it."

Daemon didn't know what to do. He had never dealt with a strange child, let alone a burgeoning sorcerer who had apparently decided she liked him just on that commonality. He was used to fear, leering, staring, but the only staring she did was clearly at his magic. 

She continued, only slightly abashed by his silence. "Can you see it? How do you uh. Pick it up?"

"Sense it," he supplied, understanding what she meant. "I  smell it." To make the point, he tapped the sensory pits halfway up his nose. "Special extra nose," he said with something of a smile. 

"There's a kind of snake with those, Ro-Ro told me, that can smell hotness," the little girl chirped merrily. "Is it like that? With magic?"

He wagged his head, not sure how to make it clearer, then nodded. Close enough. She grinned and bounced on her toes once again. "Can you cast?" 

The child was curious about his magic, which was natural, but that question gave him pause. "What do you mean by 'cast'? I take your meaning to be casting a spell? Using your magic on purpose?"

He tried to word it carefully, but she nodded the entire time, so it wasn't a misunderstanding. He knew what that implied, and he wished he was wrong. 

"I can. Can you cast?" he asked slowly. She was that strong and was asking if he, an adult, knew how to use his on purpose? Not only did she have that much power, but she clearly had no education on using it and couldn't even use it intentionally, let alone with intended results.

I have to be wrong. Or she's already killed someone and I can't tell. 

"Not yet, not how I mean to" she explained, biting her lips sheepishly and swaying in place. The mismatched eyes met his own black ones, and Daemon had to force himself not to look at the purple eye. "Daddy said they can't find a teacher."

There was more that she didn't say, but Daemon could practically sense the rejection, and it wasn't hard to come to the conclusion that no one wanted to come near magic like this.

Of course, if Daemon had a choice, he wouldn't have come any closer, either. Unfortunately, he got thrown at the girl's feet in the forest of an adult guardian, alone, with nowhere to run.

But while he was feeling unfortunate, he could recognize that the girl had gotten lucky in meeting him. He was one of a unique few that might be to help. The locals' refusal was wise, not cruel, the power it would take to just be around her while she learned was extremely rare– and he was the rarity. 

He wondered vaguely if the teachers would have refused if they met her. He couldn't bear the idea of leaving the poor kid at risk, he already liked her too much. She'd ruin everything she loved in the process of unmaking herself because she didn't know how to stop. 

"Have you learned anything?" he found himself asking. "Have you gotten any control or influence? Found anything it does easily?"

The little girl looked away for a moment before she returned her eyes to his, nodding slowly. Poor thing couldn't lie to save her life, either.

I'm here to kill someone, he tried to remind himself. I'm here to kill someone, probably friend to the kid, I do not have any resources to dedicate towards any extra projects, I'm still healing from the graft, I do not have any business whatsoever with trying to help anyone, let alone adorable little girls in faerie forests, which, by the way, is all by itself a horrible idea, and that's before we start getting into her being stronger than me. 

Daemon tried to imagine what kind of bursts she'd have. Typically involved were infrequent blinking lights and colors, smoke or blasts of extreme temperature that would eventually evolve into actual fireballs, blinding flashes, or choking mists. The amount this child was holding would mean all of those full blast at once, and probably over breakfast and then again at dinner. "What kinds have come through when you cast on accident?"

She turned and curled defensively from the question. "I haven't hurt anyone," she said, and she looked away with tears in her eyes. His guts stirred and he understood too well. Even she couldn't know if she was going to hurt someone. She might have already hurt someone. 

Daemon, to try and help her relax, knelt and placed his staff next to his feet. She seemed to like watching his tail move when he curled it under him, and looked more at his staff than his horns, which was refreshing. "I didn't ask if you hurt anyone," he pointed out.

She nodded and glanced at him from the corner of her eye, but her feet and shoulders settled. 

He continued, heartened. "I asked what kind of casting you do. It smells like mine, but there's all sorts."

She sniffled once and the expression cleared up. "Oh, um, mostly lately it's been a lot of lightning, so. Uh. It's been. Really bad and kinda messy. And fire, those two are really messy and can get really bad."

Oh.

"But sometimes I make little lights, and sometimes I move stuff by thinking about it and sometimes I make things I touch change, like I made a pitcher of juice turn into vinegar one time, and I boiled the water in the bathtub once, but that wasn't as bad at when I froze Aunt Eupa's. Sometimes I can see sounds, which I like a lot– voices are so pretty." She smiled at him and played with her skirts, swaying them around her legs and watching them swish around. "I'm kinda afraid to try and make it do stuff anymore. I… Made a mess last time. And Daddy had to help." She looked away again and bit her lips. "Sometimes I'll go fling it off if I feel it. I made an entire tree lose all its leaves one time, it's black now."

Murdering entire trees. Boiling bathtubs. This poor kid. She really was going to hurt someone. She was going to shake her fist or throw the wrong fit and someone was going to burst into flame. 

Daemon tried to find the right way to ask her for an audience with her family and was interrupted when a bass voice boomed loud enough to be heard over the river, calling Brina's name. 

The girl whirled to face the voice, then whirled back and lunged to grab Daemon's hand. He was so surprised that he forgot to resist, and was tugged staggering along by the surprisingly strong child. He barely grabbed his staff with his tail. 

"Daddy's calling me for lunch," she explained over her shoulder. "I want you to come with me, only you can't say we were at the river, 'cos I'm not supposed to be at the river by myself. Does your staff do magic by itself? They said I can't have a wand 'cos it'll do magic by itself." 

Daemon couldn't answer, as he was sure that any wand in her hand would indeed cast on its own, and he didn't want to suggest anything different was possible. 

Today was a hell of a day already. Lunchtime and he traveled two dimensions and over a thousand kilometers to end up at the table of a magical wellspring. Maybe it would work out. 

Another shout from the girl's father startled the girl. She hesitated, glancing back at Daemon a few times before she finally let go of his hand. "Hang on." She turned sharply to one side and marched a few meters. He stopped and waited to see what she was doing. 

The brown mage turned to face away from Daemon and he heard her suck a huge breath and shout into the trees, "Okay!" 

She glanced back at him bashfully, and her face reddened. "Sorry," she mumbled, and he felt her magic stirring this time when she took another deep breath and tried again.

Daemon studied her third attempt carefully, trying his best to sniff out what she was doing. It wasn't as hard as it should have been– her connection intensified the smell until it overwhelmed the trees, but she could only manage it in fleeting moments, resulting in a pulsing scent of electrified water and mint. She centered it in her throat, from what he could tell, it was sending a charge about level with his chest rippling off of her. He was even more sure when, despite the successful stirring, her squeaky shout was swallowed by the surrounding flora yet again. 

"Put the magic here," he suggested, cupping a hand at the center of his diaphragm. "Your throat is for changing your sound, your lungs are for volume."

She glanced at him and he saw her blush again, but her stirring magic centered itself in her chest, sending that rippling charge from Daemon's chest to his lower belly. Daemon felt it before she used it and he took the opportunity to cover his ears before she shouted, "OKAY!" and disturbed every bird from the road to the river. 

The little girl froze where she stood, mouth open in a surprised smile and hands held out like a bird about to take flight, then she squealed with joy and jumped up and down, clapping, spinning in place. "It worked! It worked!" She dashed to Daemon and tackled his ribs with a hug before he could stop her, squeezing tight with the little arms. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

The simple gesture crushed the fragments Daemon scraped up to talk himself out of this. Best he could do now was hope that they wouldn't let him.

Brina's 'daddy' was easily twice Daemon's overall mass. Normally, size wasn't a thing he took into notice at all; Daemon wasn't a particularly big person, especially not for hellspawn, but he was bigger than typical humans and in the face of creatures ten times his own size, he never felt small. This man made him feel no bigger than the little girl at his side. 

This was not improved by Brina dashing ahead to her father's side and taking a flying leap once she reached him. He caught her between his enormous hands, dwarfing her as they enclosed everything from armpit to hip on the child. Those were a joke. Everything else about the man was just incredible, stretched truths and embellishments– the hands were a damn joke.

"Daddy!" the little girl cried. "I met Daemon in the woods! He's got pretty fire and magic like mine! Can he eat lunch with us?"

The big man apparently had difficulty understanding what the girl had said, and he blinked at her. He then gave Daemon a suspicious once-over, then twice-over. "Where did you meet him?" He held approximately sixty pounds of child in his hands as though she were paper. The child was not as big around as one of the man's legs. 

"The flowers took me to him! I found him on the wall! He said he was trying to get to the water," Brina lied, absolutely no sign of falsehood like earlier. Daemon was sure to keep his face straight when the child gave him a pleading look, followed by the narrowed eyes of the father.

"Why?" he asked Daemon.

"Faerie magic doesn't cross water ably," Daemon tried. "I hoped I could get through without incident, and was following the wall. There are no boats out of town." That was true, as far as he knew. "Or perhaps I couldn't find them," he added carefully. "I am not from here." That was entirely true, Daemon was not from anywhere like here, just by the weather alone– it was too cold and dry. "Brina happened upon me." 

The big man was still suspicious, but Daemon could guess he was perfectly capable of handling himself in any sort of contest. The tiefling was not nearly as tough against plain physical pummeling as he was any form of magic, but the big man would have to get through his magic to pummel him. He didn't want to fight, but Daemon would win if they did. 

"Alright," the redhead finally said, and he thrust a hand out palm-sideways, then put the palm down and then withdrew his hand. "I'm Brotz. You're from. Southeast, by your accent. I've been there," he said. "I can't remember the hands."

Daemon was only mildly surprised, but he still held his hand out to guide the way. The redhead seemed to remember once prompted, and they bumped hands awkwardly while the little girl clung to her father's hip.

The cottage looked normal, Daemon acknowledged, but he could smell warding from at least six sources, least of all the inundation of faerie and Brina's magics. A blood sigil was somewhere close. 

"Daddy, he does magic like mine!" Brina stage whispered. "With all the kinds! And he helped me yell back to you!"

The big redhead's face went tall with surprise, but he snuffed out the light in his face quickly, bringing the lifted brows back down with a concerned vengeance. "I'll talk to him," he promised the child, giving an awkward sideways glance at Daemon. The tiefling didn't know what to make of it. 

Brotz led them to the door, but stopped before he let Daemon into the house and turned to face him. "Don't mind my housemate. She's gonna do her best to be the worst she can, and she'll probably call you names, but she won't hurt you for no reason. I haven't seen her around strangers in a while, so I can't tell you what she's gonna say. But. Just. She's evil. I'm already sorry."

Daemon felt like he was going to his own funeral by stepping through the open door, and after two more steps, the feeling intensified so much that his legs locked. 

If Brina was magic incarnate, the figure across the room was Death. Just looking, she was a thin werekin woman with black fur and yellow eyes (hey!), but somehow Daemon could feel teeth sinking into his throat and blades digging into his chest, and he knew it was her will alone, trying to end him without having to get up. 

Brina tugged him along as he staggered on stiff legs. He tried to take in the details, but aside from dark wood and lots of stone, he didn't see much. Some broken furniture, everything looked inexpertly made or repaired, though sturdy enough. Brina's spot at the table was carved out. The platters for food were square and a kind of thrown ceramic that he didn't recognize.

Why do I feel like I'm dying? She hasn't touched me. 

Brotz patted Daemon's back. "It's just her. I couldn't warn you about that part, I dunno how to make it sound like anything but made up." The redhead sat heavily on his wooden chair across from the wicked shadow. Brina sat Daemon at a spare seat to her left, next to Brotz and facing a wall. A platter was placed in front of him. He could barely take in the fish and foreign green stalks and white cream, distracted with Death looming at the end of the table. He could hardly breathe. Every moment was his last. 

Only that wasn't real. She wasn't even that big. She only had one dagger on her hip, he could only barely see it because she was perched like a gargoyle in her chair. She really was thin, though Daemon could see the wiry musculature this close, and it was just lunch. Brina was more dangerous than the werekin woman, he knew it, but the cold pit in his stomach was spreading into his heart and lungs and guts. 

"The fuck is this?" demanded the dark figure. Her voice was sharp, despite the alto, and perfectly normal–not belonging to a deathbeast at all. If anything, she sounded like a surly teenager. Daemon tried to force himself to pick up the utensils (forks) instead of looking at her.

I've got almost as much magic as the starborn mage next to me. I'm the flesh-crafted hellspawn of nightmares! I'm even bigger than her, dammit! Why do I feel so vulnerable? 

"His name is Daemon!" Brina cheered, evidently immune to the oppressive aura. "He's a mage like me! I can even see his fire!"

"How the fuck is he here?" Gods her teeth were huge, too, how did they even fit in her mouth? 

"Going along the wall, he said," Brotz interjected. "Probably lost and didn't know it, yet."

Daemon was settled, knowing they were aware of the wards, and he wondered how much trouble he really would have had if he got the chance to wander in. 

"The fuck does he want?" Death continued. She hadn't even looked at him, yet. Not that he saw, anyway. 

"Aunt Eupa, be nice!" Brina objected. "I invited him for lunch!"

Brotz rumbled to her, "He helped Brina shout on purpose."

Death's eyes went wide momentarily and her head swiveled to center on Daemon. He froze under the yellow stare, and he had to force himself to breathe. After a thorough look-over, she muttered under her breath unhappily and returned her attention to her fish. He didn't feel any less vulnerable, but he did feel less actively threatened. 

The lunch was tense, but Daemon wasn't sure why. He knew why he was nervous, but the ones at the ends of the table kept looking at one another in ways that Daemon knew was a silent conversation. Some small, lazily social part of him pondered their relationship. Close and intense but he detected little warmth between them. 

Brotz waited for Daemon to finish eating, but not for him to finish chewing the last bite. "Mind if I ask some stuff about the magic?"

He didn't know how to answer, afraid to come off enthusiastic and scare them, so he nodded and waited. He couldn't help wondering if Eupa was going to kill him for answering wrong.

It took a few moments for the big man to pick a question, Daemon guessed. "How'd you learn?"

"Tutors," Daemon answered honestly. "Brina said you have had difficulty finding one for her."

Brotz glanced at Brina and nodded, but he seemed wary of something. Likely upsetting her, seeing as she had only some clue as to her strength.

Daemon continued, "It's not hard to imagine that any local, or indeed anyone short of a trained and dedicated high-tier professional, would be intimidated. I am no exception."

Brotz offered him a weak smirk. "Yep. We hear that one. A lot."

Daemon nodded. "No small wonder. I am not a trained professional, but I may be able to help a little. She clearly has more power than she can control, and probably always will, but the outbursts will need taming and she may be more able to work with it, if she has more information."

From the word 'help', Brotz stopped breathing, and his eyes fixed on Daemon so hard it burned. The fork stretched in his hand as he absently squeezed. "We'll pay you whatever, we're sitting on all kinds of gold and a few pieces of enchanted gear from a trusted source," he babbled all at once.

Daemon wondered if he'd asked before or if he thought it enough to sound practiced. He couldn't even imagine it from that side, worrying with nowhere to turn. They were certainly desperate. "We can discuss that, later, perhaps when you're calmer?" Daemon nodded at the fork. Brotz lifted it to examine, then broke it when he tried to bend it back. Daemon hid the amusement as the giant tried to hide the pieces, folding them smoothly into his hand. 

The big man blushed copper and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "I can't tell you– sorry, I just– we've. I'll tell you about it when I'm calmer, yeah, but. Yeah, it's been a lot, helping her with the magic at all, just talking to her, that's more than anyone has done. Most people heard about her sparkling all day and panicked." Brotz drooped forward as though a support had been removed. 

The dark figure snorted derisively but didn't argue. "You're gonna be under real strict watch," she told Daemon sharply, but then she stood up and stepped back, clearing the table before she passed behind him. 

He expected her to walk past on the other side, but she didn't. He glanced back to see where she went and couldn't see her. He turned around in his seat, deeply unsettled to have lost sight of something so dangerous, and still couldn't find her. 

"She won't get you," Brotz said, getting to his feet and swaying. "She's just a coward and hiding. Probably as pleased as I am to get this far with talking about it. You're welcome to run whenever you want, we don't want to try and keep you, but we'd like you to stay and teach her as much as you can as long as you will." 

Daemon was surprised by the implications, and he wondered if he said something that made it sound like a long term offer. "I understand how concerned you were, but I'm not sure you understand my offer. I'm not a teacher, I'm simply a mage. I was adventuring until a few months ago."

Brotz nodded quickly, big blocky head practically bouncing. "Us, too, adventurers, and we know power when Brina sees it dancing on the demonskin–but I don't care about that, unofficial learning is just as good. As long as you will, you don't even have to come back or stay the whole time I pay for."

Daemon understood, but he was still overwhelmed with the idea. Brotz said repeated that he could run whenever he wanted, but he didn't want to, yet. 

Brotz stopped himself rambling and swayed where he stood. "Talk to you more about it tomorrow? Give it a think, we can set you up in the Harpy for a few nights, I know you probably just meant a couple lessons on, I guess, making it stop exploding, but–"

"Do you ever shut the fuck up?" demanded the sharp alto from under Brotz's left arm. When she got there was a mystery, but the dark round head bobbed back into view. "Harpy was a good idea," she told Brotz, but then she centered on Daemon. "We'll pay room and board at the Harpy and bring lessons out here to the woods, Brina's got a little clearing where she's killed everything and we built a nice wall. You will go there. We will watch you. My sister, Ro, whose forest this is, will sniff you when she gets here, if you're still here. You will let her sniff you, no matter how weird she gets with it." 

Daemon didn't like the sound of that, but by the way she grinned, and Brotz failed to completely hide his smile, it was a joke.

"We'll pay you, what, twenty gold a. What. Shit, fuck, five gold a day or something, be the richest damn tutor in town," she continued, still smirking. "Gold-equivalent, around here, shit's useful so they use fancy rocks."

Daemon was okay with that. He wondered if the gold rate here was lower than at home, but he couldn't know.

The yellow-eyed monster kept staring at his throat, but she was relaxed and practically holding up her companion, so he felt mildly safer. The pair stepped back as Eupa led Brotz to a chair in the center of the room behind Daemon, and she let the giant collapse into it, the heavy burnished leather, padding, and reinforced wooden frame creaked until his weight. He glanced back to see that Eupa had slipped from sight while he wasn't looking.

Turning his back felt like accepting his death, but he was very much risking that in helping Brina, so that was just as well. Daemon shifted his gaze to the child next to him, who turned quickly back to her plate. The green stalks alone remained, he noticed with amusement. She rolled them with her fork while she peeked at Daemon from the corner of her eyes.

"How much were you listening?" he asked, not bothering with any  false pretense.

She gave him a careful look, all but pouting. "I think you said you'd teach me, but then you said you weren't a teacher, and then there was a lot, but Daddy's happy, but Aunt Eupa isn't, so." She shrugged and turned her chin to him. "Are you gonna help?"

Oh for– The face was adorable, but the wet puppy eyes were completely unnecessary. It was going to get him killed by Luci or Eupa or Brina or Brotz or even the mysterious Ro-Ro. 

"I'm going to do what I can, yes," Daemon agreed. "I will need as much cooperation as you can manage. I can't control your magic for you, only you can do that. But I will give you as many tools as I can to help you."

Brina nodded solemnly. 

Where to even begin? Where did he begin? "Do you know what meditation is?"

She shook her head. 

"How about a mindscape?"

She shook her head once more. 

"We will start there, then. When you feel your magic, where is it?"

Brina put her hand on her collar, then moved it down a few centimeters, then up one and stopped there. "Here."

"Then we will build your mindscape there, and take stairs from your head, down your neck, and into a room where your magic lives. I want you to think of what this room is—"

"Can it be my room?" she asked, pointing across the den at a wooden door hanging off a set of hinges. Daemon could see a set of fasteners intended to allow such removal and he wondered if that was done before or after it became necessary.

"Your bedroom will be perfect. We'll get to more about it later, but I want you to put stairs into it, and I want you to make a container for your magic so you can open and close it."

She was already smiling and rocking in her seat. "Can it be my toybox?"

"You can't do this wrong," he promised. "It can all be invisible, as long as you know where it is and what the invisible thing looks like under its invisibility." She giggled at him and he smiled back. 

She glanced at her (...parents?) to see the enormous redhead in his sitting chair with the lanky dress-clad murderess draped over the back of his chair and against his shoulders and head, but he couldn't see her face. The relief was tangible.

"They're always weird about my magic," Brina said matter-of-factly. It was hard not to be mad at them. They were even right to be frightened, but it complicated an already-tumultuous relationship. Fear was one of the worst kicks for outbursts, fearing one's own magic could have devastating effects. 

"They want to help and don't know how," Daemon assured her, confident in the truth of it. Eupa slouched harder against Brotz. "They're not magical at all, are they?"

Brina shook her head. "Well, Daddy kinda, but he can't smell or sense it like Aunt Eupa can. She says she can feel it in the air."

Daemon believed that with no trouble– it was rarer in his experience for someone to feel literally nothing ever.

"They're welcome to sit in on lessons, but," he lifted his gaze to them. "I am going to ask them to stay out of Brina's view, perhaps behind her, so that she will not be distracted?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Brotz said quickly. 

Daemon turned back to Brina. "If we get our agreements settled before noon tomorrow, I can return here to give you some afternoon lessons. If not, I will see you the day after. Imagine every part of that room so that you know it all when you're not looking at it."

Brina nodded firmly and giggled. "Okay! Thank you!"

"Yeah," Brotz mumbled.

Eupa grumbled, but Brotz shoved her lightly and smiled. "I'll walk him up to the Harpy." 

Daemon understood this to mean that he was being escorted back to town, but he hoped Brotz, in his excitement, wouldn't keep trying to talk to him. The grace was hard to maintain, he was overwhelmed himself.

~

Arrangements were made; Daemon would meet Brotz or Eupa at the road into the forest, working two of three days with exceptions on request, for as long as he would. He knew it wasn't going to be a quick task, but they never pressured him for a deadline or time limit. They paid in room and board at the Harpy, not a bad place to be, and money directly.

He expected more oversight, as he had been warned, but apparently, whatever they were looking for had nothing to do with him directly, nor his behavior toward Brina, or else he simply never gave them cause to look in their direction.

Ro encountered him shortly after he arrived and she didn't sniff, but the way she stared at him certainly made sniffing sound less invasive. However, as intensely as she stared, he met her approval, as she gave him a carnation as a 'pass' in the forest, and guiding flowers.

Weeks passed without his noticing. The good days were good. Brina was easily entertained with practice– she taught herself to make two  orbs at a time and make them dance; she perfected her shouting and started on voice manipulation, ably copying the voices of everyone in the house; she learned how to make the sparkling lights intentionally to float around her head, and a tiny dancing flame out of a light Daemon taught her. 

She was an able reader, and he found that writing short informational essays for her was a decent shorthand for the real theory books needed for high-power casting. When they were instructions for intended practice, Brina would devour the whole page in moments and begin. 

Theory pages... 

"I am inclined to join a local library so that I may find more books on the subject," Daemon chided as he turned pages in his book. He wasn't really reading, but she was slightly less disruptive when she thought he wasn't looking.

"It's just so boring! I'll never need this! I have too much magic, why would I need to know how to grow more?"

It didn't help that she was simply a more expressive version of himself at that age. His magic lessons were always difficult, and he had the same tantrum in the other direction. 'When will I ever need to know how to control too much' indeed. "Just in case. Perhaps you will have a young student one day who is equally stubborn and has difficult magic. In any case, we will continue this lesson until I'm satisfied that you have learned it."

Brina moaned at him and kicked her feet, but, to his relief, Brotz came to the rescue. He asked his way into the practice grove with a raised brow, waited for permission, then scooped Brina up to cradle in his arms.

She stopped whining but the tears fell uninterrupted. Brotz brushed them away, then held her at arm's length, reclining her in his hands. "Do you think the fit is going to help?"

Brina's bottom lip trembled and she sniffled before she creaked, "No."

"It's not going to get any better. You've got it. You just don't want to." He smiled at her and brushed another tear away. "Might as well get it done. Get it over with, and then it's gone. You can remember the job and remember it's gone and smile."

The sound she made in reply would have been trouble at Daemon's home, but Brotz didn't mind at all, instead kissing her head and plopping her back to the ground near Daemon. "You can do it." 

Brina did indeed snuff up the tears and start reading the simple page. Daemon was in for a long job, he knew that when he started, but he could rest assured that it wasn't impossible.

~

Apparently, the rough lesson was what they wanted to see before they invited him to stay in their den. That, and they wanted to know why he was originally in the forest.

Daemon discovered this as he followed the white guiding flowers to the cottage, familiar with the hidden path Brotz trod over the years. He was enjoying the morning chill when he saw all three of the adults outside, flashes of color amongst the trees. He moved his hand to a higher point on his staff to look less ready to fight.

Eupa had her sword on her hip and wore a simple leather cuirass. Brotz wore his gauntlets, but more importantly was standing at the ready, looming dangerously and swaying in place. Ro was... Ro, who was pretty well always dangerous-looking, with the magic dancing ribbons, faerie eyes, and the spear she leaned casually against.

Fortunately, she was also the one that stepped forward. "I'm sorry, these two are paranoid. Why did you show up? When Brina found you the first day?"

Daemon was not sure why it would come up, and he wasn't sure if Eupa would tolerate the threat, but he didn't want to try lying to Ro.

"There's pretty much no chance you'll be in trouble, there's only one wrong answer," Brotz assured him. "Just need to make sure."

Daemon frowned up at the big man, not appreciating the loom and wishing he'd direct that elsewhere. Seeing it done to Eupa was very different from experiencing it himself.

"I suppose lying will get me into more trouble?" Daemon asked Ro, giving her an anxious side-eye. 

"Likely," Ro agreed. "I'm already confident that the truth is acceptable."

Daemon grunted unhappily and watched the intended hit subtly from the corner of his eye. "I was sent to murder Eupa," he finally admitted.

Eupa didn't move, but Brotz wheeled on her with such speed that Daemon still ducked away from him. "Again?!"

Eupa's snakelike movements were hard to track as she slipped away from Brotz's hands and to his immediate left. "It's not my fucking fault!" She dodged narrowly as he swung to grab her again.

Daemon breathed a sigh of relief and looked to Ro, whose smile reminded him more of a lion than humanoid. "See?"

"Who sent you!? I'll tie her up and take her myself!" Brotz bellowed to Daemon. He didn't know if he was really supposed to answer until Brotz stopped swinging and narrowed his eyes at him. The tiefling tried to scoot so Ro was between them. "My sister. Half-sister. Luci."

Brotz wheeled back to Eupa, who was now staring at Daemon's face, as if she'd recognize Luci's features on him. (He had never considered that they might look similar.)

Whether or not they did, Eupa probably only knew a few tieflings, and meeting Luci was not exactly forgettable. "You're talking about that naked devil bitch, aren't you!?" she snapped. 

Brotz swung at her faster than anything that big should have been able to move. "You're fucking with hell?! I knew he was tiefling, but Hell!?"

Eupa guided Brotz away from the house as she narrowly dodged his swings, though if she was doing that on purpose or by reflex was a question for later. "How the fuck was I supposed to know!? It's not like she introduced herself before she fucked with me! She started visiting me in my sleep!"

"You brought the wrath of hell on my house!"

"Did you want me to say yes!?"

Ro smiled toothlessly at Daemon. "See? You can go in, now."

"Thanks," Daemon muttered weakly, heading into the house where Brina eagerly bounced at the door.